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No team has made the playoffs with a losing record in a non-strike season — so, this could be a history-making first for the West champion. Cleveland and Detroit advanced in the 1982 strike season with 4-5 records when the playoffs were expanded to include eight teams per conference.

“It’s unusual, but let’s not get it twisted. We didn’t make the rules,” San Francisco linebacker Takeo Spikes said defensively.

“We live in a society where the rules are made and we’re going to play in them. So we get the opportunity to do that, which we will with these next two games. Hopefully we’ll take care of business and we’ll set ourselves up with the playoffs.

“I don’t worry about what this person may say, what that person may say. If they had the opportunity to be in our shoes right now they would love to. But they can’t. That’s why they’re sitting behind a desk, holding microphones and making opinions. One day I’ll be that person but until that day I’m going to take advantage of my business here.”

Even coach Mike Singletary has been perplexed by this season, by this team he truly thought would be so much better in his second full year in charge. He lists certain players who have had productive years and points to a pair of rookie offensive linemen who have hung tough through their introduction to the rigors of the pro game.

Yet many have greatly underachieved. There have been quarterback switches, and the 49ers have made a lot of the same mistakes that hurt them a year ago in an 8-8 season. That after Singletary and his players thought things were fixed and they were destined to end a seven-year postseason drought.

“It’s never over ’til it’s over,” center David Baas said. “We’ve got a chance to do something awesome.”

But it could be over as soon as Sunday, when San Francisco plays at St. Louis. A loss and the 49ers are officially done, leaving the Rams and Seahawks to fight for the top spot in the league’s worst division. San Francisco would have been eliminated last weekend if either Seattle or St. Louis had won, yet neither did.

Having won four of seven, San Francisco actually has been the division’s hottest team of late.

“I’ve never thought we were totally out of it,” rookie running back Anthony Dixon said. “Because until they tell us we are out of it, we are in it.”

The hands-down favorite to win the West, San Francisco went unbeaten in the preseason and then started 0-5. Team president Jed York declared his club would still rebound to win the division and make the playoffs, even though no team in NFL history has bounced back from an 0-5 start to advance to the postseason.

If the 49ers somehow do make the playoffs, they would host the No. 1 wild-card team for a game at Candlestick Park. If the standings play out the way they are now, that would be the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints.

These 49ers have faced constant drama along the way, too. Practically every week, in fact.

Three players departed along the way, including second-year running back Glen Coffee, who decided to retire to pursue the ministry only to be arrested on a gun charge in October in Florida.